DON’T USE TEXTING FOR IMPORTANT BUSINESS MESSAGES AND BE CAREFUL WITH EMAILS AS WELL
Before the internet and smartphones, a written letter was the primary method for delivering important business communications. The inherent formality associated with writing a business letter resulted in the message being carefully drafted. However, the formality of business communications substantially decreased after email was introduced. Later on, text messaging further decreased the time and care with which information was communicated.
Today, emails and text messages play a major role in business litigation – often to the detriment of the person who drafted the message. In a trial, it is up to the judge and/or jury to determine the truth. When two people provide conflicting testimony, the judge or jury has a difficult job. In those cases, the documents are often the tiebreaker. Therefore, a quickly written, ambiguous or angry message can lead to an unfavorable outcome at trial.
It is important to remember that you can be hamstrung by a poorly written text or email that is only sent within your company in the same manner as a text or email sent to someone outside your organization. In litigation, each party may conduct discovery, which includes requests for the other party’s documents. For years now, those requests have included an organization’s texts and emails, including internal communications.
Even after close to 30 years of email being in mainstream use, people still write emails as if they are private communications. People should know by now that nothing written in an email should be considered private. A good rule of thumb should be to draft your emails as if that message may be shown to the entire world because that in fact could happen.
These days, in every case, we come across emails that are either very helpful or harmful to our clients’ positions. The old cliché about putting a nasty letter in your desk drawer and holding off deciding whether to send it until the next day after you have had time to cool down is still a good rule to follow. Unfortunately, with email, it is all to easy to write out your (angry and hastily considered) thoughts and hit SEND. There is no need to print the letter, address an envelope, put a stamp on it, and deposit it in the mail. With email, there are no built-in delays that give you time to reconsider whether you want to actually send what you wrote. Therefore, if you know you are upset about the subject matter, always save your message to your draft folder and reconsider sending it after you cool down.
Unfortunately, as bad as emails can be, text messages are even worse. From their inception, text messages were intended to be very informal communications. In fact, people that use proper English and punctuation in text messages are often mocked. In personal messages, that is not a problem, but, in business, such informality is a horrible idea.
In construction, text messages provide a valuable service if used properly. Having almost instant communication with suppliers, subcontractors and your employees make managing a project much easier. However, there are important differences between scheduling someone to be on-site and arguing about a substantial change order. Thus, when it comes to text messaging, organizations should have guidelines as to the appropriate use for such communications. In the old days, for quick agreements to resolve minor disputes, we used preprinted forms to document agreements that were written down in the field and signed by both parties. While that may seem archaic, that system led to much better results than how things are done today.
The bottom line is that, while technology has increased the speed at which we can communicate, the technology must be appropriately managed. If you have any questions about how to best develop protocols for your business communications, please give me a call.
Scott Orenstein
(203) 640-8825